Week 10: The Naked Truth About Money
Money isn't just a financial issue-it's a faith issue. In Week 10 of The Naked Truth, we discover what Scripture says about generosity, why giving has always been part of following Jesus, and how what God places in our hands can advance the gospel and meet real needs. Generosity isn't about pressure; it's our response to a God who gave first.
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coming soon
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Week 10 BLOG
The Naked Truth About Money
Money has a way of making things personal. We may be comfortable allowing God to speak into our relationships, our choices, our time, or even our future, but finances can feel different. We work for our money, make plans for it, save it, spend it, and depend on it. It can be easy to quietly draw a line around that part of our lives and think, “God, You can have everything else, but this is mine.”
But Jesus never treated money as separate from our spiritual lives. Scripture talks repeatedly about possessions, generosity, greed, stewardship, and giving because money often reveals something deeper than what's in our bank account. It can reveal what we trust, what we value, and ultimately what has our heart. The naked truth about money isn't primarily about dollars and cents. It's about discipleship.
Near the end of Romans, Paul tells the church in Rome about his plans to take the gospel farther west into Spain. In Romans 15:24, he explains that he hopes the believers in Rome will provide for his journey. Paul expected the church to participate financially because giving was simply part of how God's mission moved forward. We see that pattern throughout the New Testament. People financially supported Jesus and His disciples, the early church shared resources to care for those in need, and churches gave to help Paul take the gospel into new places.
That expectation can make us uncomfortable, but Scripture never presents generosity as an optional extra for especially committed Christians. God has always called His people to return a portion of what He has first entrusted to them. Our time belongs to Him. Our abilities belong to Him. And our resources belong to Him too.
But there is also a very practical reason Christians give: there are people to reach and needs to meet.
Romans 15 gives us both pictures. Paul needed support to take the gospel to Spain, while believers in Macedonia and Achaia were collecting money for struggling Christians in Jerusalem. One gift advanced the mission; another met a need. Both mattered.
That same pattern continues today. Ministry requires resources. Children need people to teach them God's Word. Students need leaders investing in them. Missionaries need to be sent. Churches need places where people can gather. Families need help. Communities need compassion. People need to hear the gospel. Giving turns the resources God has placed in our hands into opportunities for someone else to encounter His love.
And for most of us, that is exactly how we came to know Jesus.
Someone invested before we arrived. Someone gave to build the church, send the missionary, support the ministry, teach the child, reach the student, or create the environment where we eventually heard the gospel. Behind almost every story of a changed life is someone who prayed, someone who served, and someone who gave.
Now we get to do the same for someone else.
That's what makes Christian generosity different from simply paying a bill or making a donation. We don't give because God needs our money. We give because we recognize how much He has already given us. We have received grace, so we extend grace. We have been blessed, so we become a blessing. We have been reached, so we help reach someone else.
Scripture also shows us that generosity should be intentional. Romans 15 describes churches collecting an offering for a specific need, and Paul elsewhere encouraged believers to regularly set something aside to give. Generosity wasn't meant to depend entirely on emotion or whatever happened to be left over. It became a planned rhythm of following Jesus.
Ultimately, though, the greatest example of generosity isn't found in a church offering. It is found in Jesus.
Before God ever asked us to give, He gave first. He gave His Son, and Jesus gave His life. He paid a debt we could never pay and offered us a gift we could never earn. That changes the motivation behind everything.
We don't give because we are pressured. We don't give because we feel guilty. We give because we have been loved. We give because everything we have ultimately belongs to Him. And we give because following Jesus means trusting Him with every part of our lives—including our money. Naked Truth-SermonNotes.pdfPDF
That's the naked truth about money: generosity isn't God trying to get something from us. It's God inviting us to use what He has given us to help one more person find what matters.
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Small Group Curriculum – The Naked Truth
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